Support for git's `worktrees`

[pseudoparenchymatous]

Is this a question?
No.

Can this functionality be implemented utilising API?
No.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
No.

Describe the solution you'd like
A clear and concise description of what you want to happen.
Gitsigns has this feature.

require('gitsigns').setup({
    worktrees = {
        {
            toplevel = '~/projects/sample/', 
            gitdir = '~/projects/sample/.not-defaut-gitdir/',
        }, 
        { ... },
    }
}

In case getting git info fails, it will try to look at these worktrees with basically a custom name of the .git directory (bare-repository). Nvim-tree having the same feature would be 😍.

Describe alternatives you've considered
I tried looking at the source code to try to hard code it but I don't understand your implementation lol. I managed to hard-code it in lualine (that plugin also doesn't support this feature).

[alex-courtis]

I'm not having any issues with worktrees; it's successfully reading and using gitdir: from the .git file.

Please provide a repo or instructions on how to replicate this.

[pseudoparenchymatous]

Here's an example:

Both file.txt are untracked but only the one in traditional_repository has a star sign. That's because it's assumed that the .git directory is inside the traditional_repository and it is indeed found. The presumed .git directory for actual_repository is actually outside of the nested directory and its actual name is .bare_repo not .git.

If want to do git work on actual_repository, I have to do:

$ git --git-dir ../../../.bare_repo --work-tree . status
$ git --git-dir ../../../.bare_repo --work-tree . add file.txt
$ git --git-dir ../../../.bare_repo --work-tree . commit -m 'git message' 
$ git --git-dir ../../../.bare_repo --work-tree . log

So what gitsigns is doing is letting users give arguments to the --git-dir and --work-tree flags to its git runner.

PS: I actually make aliases for those long git commands 😂

[alex-courtis]

Failed attempt at replication:

:; mkdir 2142
:; cd 2142
:; mkdir master
:; cd master
:; git init
hint: Using 'master' as the name for the initial branch. This default branch name
hint: is subject to change. To configure the initial branch name to use in all
hint: of your new repositories, which will suppress this warning, call:
hint:
hint:   git config --global init.defaultBranch <name>
hint:
hint: Names commonly chosen instead of 'master' are 'main', 'trunk' and
hint: 'development'. The just-created branch can be renamed via this command:
hint:
hint:   git branch -m <name>
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/alex/2142/master/.git/
:; echo foo > bar
:; echo foo > baz
:; git add bar baz
:; git commit -a -m "add two files"
[master (root-commit) 1daa303] add two files
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 bar
 create mode 100644 baz

:; git worktree add ../one -b one
Preparing worktree (new branch 'one')
HEAD is now at 1daa303 add two files
:; git worktree add ../two -b two
Preparing worktree (new branch 'two')
HEAD is now at 1daa303 add two files

:; cd ..
:; vi

modify master/bar
modify one/baz
add master/foo
add one/oof

[alex-courtis]

Please do not take offense:

Perhaps your workflow is incorrect:

• there are multiple plugins that do not support your needs
• operations such as opening a file via, say, telescope plugin or :e **/ are difficult as they will match the file in all worktrees
• operations such as :make do not function without explicit directory changes
• symbol or text search is difficult as it will match in all worktrees
• LSP is not feasible - it's operating on all the worktrees

The typical workflow with worktrees is to open vim or your IDE inside one worktree rather than trying to open all the worktrees.

[alex-courtis]

This is an edge case that has only been reported by yourself.

I'll accept a PR to support this providing:

1. It does not affect existing functionality
2. No additional git operations are executed
3. A standalone reproducer is provided

[pseudoparenchymatous]

I mean all I'm asking is whenever nvim-tree runs a git command under the hood and it fails (i.e. not on a git repo), run the git command again but this time supply the --git-dir and --work-tree flags to the git command according to the the options given to nvim-tree.setup().
I'm still studying your implementation of the git feature, so I might come up with a PR for this when I fully understand it. But thanks for listening to my problem 🥲

[alex-courtis]

I would like to understand the use case and the problem - it's not clear exactly what you are trying to do and exactly what is going wrong.

Please supply a reproducer like #2142 (comment) so that we may proceed.

A PR will not be accepted unless the problem is understood and demonstrated.

[pseudoparenchymatous]

Reproduce with this (you are at the home directory ~ and using bash)

$ mkdir example
$ cd example
$ git init --bare sample-bare
$ mkdir -p nested/dir/ect/ory/work
$ cd nested/dir/ect/ory/work
$ alias git-bare="git --git-dir ~/example/sample-bare --work-tree ~/example/nested/dir/ect/ory/work"
$ echo foo > bar
$ echo foo > baz
$ git-bare add bar baz
$ git-bare commit -m 'add two files'
$ vim
modify work/bar
add work/foo

Now nvim-tree will look something like this:

But I want it to look like so, and this commit 36aa86a made it work (this commit fixes this example only and breaks the feature in any other git directory; this is for demonstration only):

If you're wondering why I have this workflow it's because of this and managing dotfiles like this isn't that uncommon.

I hope I managed to explain my problem clearly with no confusion 🙏

[alex-courtis]

Thank you, that home directory is the missing piece. I'll attempt a replicator this weekend.

Possibly related #1966

[salimhamed]

This feature is helpful when your git folder is not located in .git/ at the root of the project. An example use-case I'm running into is using yadm to version control dotfiles. yadm uses a non standard GIT_DIR located at .local/share/yadm/repo.git. As a result, git annotations for files tracked with yadm are not showing up in nvim-tree.

gitsigns.nvim was mentioned in the original post, so it's worth noting gitsigns.nvim has native support for yadm through the plugin configuration options.

[alex-courtis]

yadm uses a non standard GIT_DIR located at .local/share/yadm/repo.git.

That may be resolved via #2012, recently merged.